Tour de France verdict: Egan Bernal's travails raise question of whether Ineos should have...

[ASFN Admin]

Egan Bernal predicted there would be splits on the final, wall-like climb of Pas de Peyrol at the Tour de France on Friday. He was dead right. Unfortunately for the Colombian, and for fans of Ineos Grenadiers, the 2019 champion found himself on the wrong side of them. Another brutal, lung-busting day at the Tour - the most illuminating of the race as far as the overall picture is concerned - saw Bernal give up 38 seconds to Slovenians Primoz Roglic [Jumbo-Visma] and Tadej Pogacar [UAE Team Emirates] on the finish to stage 13, a monstrous up-and-down day featuring no less than seven categorised climbs. Tour de France, stage 13 – full results and standings Bernal dropped to third overall as a result. He is now 59secs behind Roglic, and 15secs behind Pogacar who leapfrogs him in the general classification. Not a disaster by any stretch. We still have the biggest stages of this race to come, in the Alps, which was where Bernal came on strong in the third week last year. But the 23-year-old’s struggles at the moment, the fact that he consistently finds himself that fraction off the pace of Roglic and Pogacar, the fact that he looked so spent at the finish, hunched over his handlebars, the fact he volunteered that he was producing some of his “best numbers” but still coming off second best, do raise an interesting question for Ineos. As Bernal was labouring up the Pas de Peyrol and its devilish 15 per cent ramps, 700 miles away down in Italy, Geraint Thomas, the man Ineos surprisingly left at home, was finishing second on the Queen stage of Tirreno-Adriatico. Thomas, who was 35secs behind stage winner and new race leader Simon Yates [Mitchelton-Scott] on the Sassotetto summit finish, sits third overall after five stages of that race. The Welshman declared afterwards that he was “pretty happy” with his form, and was “feeling good”.

Continue reading...